Why Reddit Is My New Best Friend

Blogging, humor, lessons learned, rankings, technology 2 Minutes

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I wrote a blog post asking what was with people and tires.

My most popular blog post of all time was one I wrote in June of 2018: “And the World’s Largest Tire Manufacturer Is… Drumroll Please…“ I didn’t think there was anything particularly special about the post until one day in September 2019.

Back then my blog was averaging about 350-400 views per day. However, on that particular day, my blog had 5,385 views, of which 5,021 were for my blog post about the world’s largest tire manufacturer. Of course, I wrote about that day as well: “The Day My WordPress Stats Went Wild“.

While that post is still my most popular, it’s never had day like that since, although a couple of weeks ago it had 415 views in one day. Again, I have no reason why.

Well, all of that changed today. People really went crazy about tires, as you can see from the photo above.

As of 11:00 tonight, my blog has had over 9.700 views, with over 9,400 coming from the tires post. And if you look a little bit more closely, you will see that the biggest referrer was Reddit.

So what was going on?

Well as it turned my oldest son actually texted me tonight and asked me if I was getting a lot of view on my tires post. I said that I was, and asked how he would have known that. Was he just sitting at his house hitting the refresh button on that post to boost my view count?

No, he wasn’t (it doesn’t work that way, I’ve tried…). He told me he had come across the following in a subreddit:

TIL stands for Today I Learned, and this person had somehow come across my blog and posted it to the TIL subreddit. I don’t know much about Reddit, except I have heard it referred to as the front page of the Internet. I also don’t know what the 14.7k refers to, but I am guessing it is somehow related to the crazy number of views I got today. At one point, my view count increased by 5,700 views in one hour.

Many of you know of my obsession with WordPress stats, so you can imagine what kind of day I have had.

Thank you to u/otter for linking to my post. It looks like I may need to spend some time learning about Reddit and see if I can post links to some of my blog posts on its site.

Once I do, perhaps David Kanigan’s wild stats day will be within reach…

P.S. I checked just before midnight to see if I hit 10,000 views for the day, and I have!

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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41 thoughts on “Why Reddit Is My New Best Friend”

  1. Wow! Just one person linking your post to the right site and BOOM! Who knows, if that keeps happening your blog may become more popular than ….. what’s the name of that movie again? 😉

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    1. maybe I can have the star of Napoleon Dynamite play me when there is a movie made about how a blogger went from rags to riches… either him or Brad Pitt 🙂

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  3. this is your dream come true! it’s like a game of roulette, as i see it, without the math of odds, and you never know when and why it will hit! your stat wish granted )

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  4. I have heard of Reddit, but have never used it. I always thought of it as a second cousin to the almighty Twitter (which was just never my thing). I may have to rethink my position. As much as you enjoy keeping an eye on your stats, this had to really make your day. A number like that would make my month. I hope you won’t forget about us little guys as your blog rockets to stardom. Seriously though, I think it is just recognition for the great writing you consistently provide. And the attention is well deserved! Congrats on your stats!

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    1. thanks, Brad. It was kind of exciting. And those one-day stats would be a good month for me as well. And don’t worry, I’ll remember my WordPress roots when Spielberg and Cameron start bidding to do a movie about my life…:)

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      1. Of course, that statistical anomaly now skews any trending you may have been following, but your a numbers guy and I know you will figure it out…who would play you in the movie?

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  5. BTW, the number in the upper left is the number of people who voted on your post. Members can vote articles up and down, which I assume increases your top position on their page and the likeliness of being seen by others.

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  8. Wow, congratulations! I had two days around 90 earlier this week and they stood out for me, so even your usual levels are way beyond my wildest dreams! Maybe I should look into using Reddit? 😂

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  9. It’s cool to get the answer to something that we’ve been curious about for some time. I guess the real question is, can this be something repeated again and again with other posts? I’m kind of a math nerd, so I would be curious if you also got an uptick in bloggers that day too since you got so many more views. I’ve also heard about Reddit, and if I remember correctly, read comments from Reddit threads. It sounds like the phenomenon that you are describing.

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    1. I don’t think it is something that can be repeated over and over again. That’s probably a good thing, as my family was tired of me telling the latest number of views every five minutes…
      it just seemed pure luck…

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  15. Amazing! I was looking back at my most viewed posts last week, and the top ten were published in 2019 between March and June. I am thinking of republishing these top posts down the road in my Monday Memories segment.

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    1. I have often thought of doing the same thing, since most of the people that read my blog no were not around when I published my first few years of posts…

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